There is an old familiar saying in the wine business: "It takes a lot of great beer to make great wine!" Winemakers, cellar workers, and grape pickers alike rarely (if ever) reach for a nice big glass of red wine in the middle of harvest. Wine is quite delicious, but not very refreshing on a hot summer day. The beverage of choice during harvest is BEER! Ice-cold, refreshing, and thirst-quenching BEER! The beer in this bottle is a toast to our winemaking friends who work around the clock during harvest to make world-class wine right here in our own back yard! Cheers!

Bottle shared by whiterascal, poured into a tulip. Brewed in celebration of the Sonoma wineries and the tradition of serving the vineyard workers ale with their lunches.

Pale, perfectly clear buttercup gold. A wispy, airy and very short-lived head of white pops away to nothing. Thin, delicate — looks like a lager.

It also smells like a lager. Sweet baking bread, a touch of sourdough and zesty, floral hops. Some interesting sweetness is in there as well — marzipan? Ginger?

The flavor leads with spicy, floral Czech or German hops. Crackers, touch of biscuits. Some grainy bitterness sweeps in at the finish. Very clean, very light.

Weird in the mouth — kind of dead, watery. Flashes of peppery carbonation in the light to medium-light body. Insubstantial.

Pretty much every reference to the beer’s style I’ve found refers to the beer as an American pale style, but my mouth found this sitting firmly in the lager camp. Even as a lager, ITALOGBTMGW isn’t impressive. It’s a decently drinkable lager, but it’s also very boring, and doesn’t live up to the excitement a Russian River bottle produces.

straw yellow color. golden amber with a crystal clear look to it. A small head of maybe an inch rose up, but immediatly fell back down, leaving a naked top to it.

The aroma was light. Lots of light grain and bready malts abound here. Small light fruit notes and an overall light profile. Taste was more of the same, light grain, light fruits, small doses of grain. A crisp, clean, and refreshing profile. Very light feel with an almost non existently light feel. Super drinkable

Thanks to Bdige for sending this along in a recent trade. Always love Russian River. Need to get there someday.

Bright/tight white head forms slowly collapses and is quite creamy in the process. The beer is a bright gold/straw color with just a hint of carbonation rising to the surface.

Aroma is grassy with a touch of sulphur and with bread dough just below the surface.

Flavor is quite bready and nice. The sulphur is just there, but not a problem. Dough sweet bread notes like the center of a fresh baked roll. Almost a sense of white pepper and some white grape. As it warns slightly the depth of the malt bill really comes out.

Crisp and refreshing. A touch more sturdy than “delicate” but still an overall light body.

Good little beer. Well built and spot on for the style. For what it’s made to be, they nailed it.

Pours a pale pastel yellow with visible carbonation rising, and a cluster of larger bubbles on the surface. Thin layer of foam fades to a thin cirrus pattern skim across the surface after a few sips. Solid head retention.

Initially lagery and slightly sulfuric, but this passes, leaving some floral tulip notes and grassy greenery in place of that. Slight yeastiness, overall clean.

Refreshing and crisp taste. Light grassy hops. Not much bitterness at all. Some fruitiness from the yeast. Bready/cracker malt profile. Easily sessionable but boring. Kind of an odd format to sell a beer like this. Reminds me of Mayflower Golden Ale a little. It's meant to be sessioned and not analyzed but if I wanted a sessionable lager I would look for a Tipopils, which this does not even come close.